Judge denies access to nurse's records in Brewster abuse case

Wednesday

Mar 13, 2019 at 6:15 PMMar 14, 2019 at 6:31 AM

Attorney for accused teacher sought students' health profiles.

Wheeler Cowperthwaite @WheelerReporter

BARNSTABLE — The attorney for the Brewster teacher accused of sexually assaulting two first-graders has obtained many of the school records she requested about the alleged victims, but a judge denied her motion Wednesday for records from the school nurse's office.

Noah Campbell-Halley, 36, of Harwich, appeared in Barnstable Superior Court for the hearing with attorney Rachel Self. He had pleaded not guilty in September to five counts of child rape, eight counts of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, one count of assault and battery on a child under 14 and two counts of witness intimidation

Self initially told Judge Robert Rufo that she wanted records created by the Stony Brook Elementary School personnel her investigator spoke to, but she was not sure if those employees were officially part of the "guidance staff," which would give documents they created an extra level of protection from the pretrial discovery process.

She said the documents she wanted were outlined in the police reports in the investigative file. In those reports, it is noted that at least one of Campbell-Halley's alleged victims went through "severe behavior changes" through the school year.

Self said the records could give insight to reasons for the student's change in behavior other than the alleged sexual abuse.

"It might just be general notes in the child's file," she said. "It's hard to know what it's called."

Rufo called a "timeout" and asked Self, the attorneys representing the school and the prosecutor to discuss what documents were uncontested.

Forty minutes later, Self said she had a proposed amended order for production of documents and there was only one type of contested record — a "health profile."

She said the health profile is a packet of documents created by the school nurse. Among other items, it contains a log of when the students went to the nurse's office.

"We learned ... one of the students is a 'frequent flyer' to the school nurse, and that's outlined in the health profile," she said.

That nurse's log would offer a concrete timeline of when specific students were at the office, which would show a child's whereabouts at a time when abuse could be alleged to be taking place, Self said.

The children's versions of events contradict each other, as do staff members interviewed by the defense investigator, she said.

Rufo denied the motion without prejudice, meaning Self may file it again.

Rufo said he wanted school attorneys to find out if they could extract the log information from the rest of the record, without exposing the reason a child went to the nurse.

According to police reports, all of the charges stemmed from incidents involving two first-graders.

The students told a forensic interviewer and police that Campbell-Halley would take them, and others, into a small windowless room off the computer lab classroom that they referred to as "the dark room." Campbell-Halley would shut the door, sometimes leaving them in darkness and leaving the students in the main classroom on their own, the report says.

The students said that, while in the smaller room, they watched videos on Campbell-Halley's iPad, according to the report. The two children alleged he would touch them on the penis, or have them touch others there, and sometimes have them touch him.

Nauset Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Conrad previously said Campbell-Halley was placed on administrative leave March 19 after being notified of the police investigation. Campbell-Halley was arrested three days later. He has been free on bail with conditions that he observe a curfew, wear a GPS monitoring device and have no contact with children other than his own.

— Follow Wheeler Cowperthwaite on Twitter: @WheelerReporter.

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